Sack of Lindisfarne (868)

The Sack of Lindisfarne occurred in 868 when the Danish Viking Skula Sihtricsson and his band of around 20 raiders pillaged the Northumbrian monastery of Lindisfarne in northeastern England.

Skula's raiding force landed at Bebbanburg aboard a non-military passenger ship, and they gathered Norse volunteers from across northern England before heading south to make their wealth. They stopped at the monastery of Lindisfarne, where they decided to pillage the monastery's wealth. Skula and his men charged into the settlement and found several monks equipped with pitchforks and other light weapons, and the monks were slaughtered as they either tried to resist the Vikings with their rudimentary tools, or fled in vain. The Vikings killed all of the monks at the monastery and plundered the honey, ale, pork, and salt stored there. This was the first of their attacks on English soil, and Skula proceeded to embark on a series of raids against near-defenseless monasteries and villages.